Is Moving To San Jose The Solution To Issues A's Are Facing?

New ballpark in San Jose could make A's more attractive to free agents

The A's need to "move to San Jose," where a 32,000-seat ballpark is "all but ready to go," according to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSPORTS.com. A's Owner Lew Wolff: "If we had approval from baseball, it would take six to nine months to finish our drawings, then a maximum of two years to build. So, I would say 30 to 36 months." The A's are "confident the ballpark would pass a citywide ballot measure ... absent public financing." Agent Scott Boras said, "A few franchises need to be evaluated and examined. Oakland can immediately improve and become a success if moved to San Jose." The A's failure to sign 3B Adrian Beltre, a Boras client, "for the second straight offseason ... illustrates the difficulty the team faces in landing premier free-agent talent." Beltre, "like most star players, wanted no part of Oakland" and no part of Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Boras, "without referring specifically to Beltre," said, "You talk to players. It's not the city. It's not the team. It's the ballpark. And there are no fans there." Rosenthal wrote a "stronger A's franchise would possess greater spending power and help drive the market" for players. The Giants "hold territorial rights to San Jose's home county, Santa Clara, only because the A's were kind enough to surrender them in the early 1990s, when the San Francisco team was exploring a move to the area." Appeasing the Giants "will not be easy." Rosenthal: "The A's remain in limbo, plodding along in Oakland" (FOXSPORTS.com, 1/20).